


A Leap of Faith

by crescentmoon223



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s11e09 Nothing Lasts Forever, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode: s11e09 Nothing Lasts Forever, The Unremarkable House (X-Files), Whisper in the Church, soft MSR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:02:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26423827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescentmoon223/pseuds/crescentmoon223
Summary: The church behind her had provided the foundation of her faith, but the man beside her represented her leap of faith, a leap she was ready to take…together.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 24
Kudos: 68
Collections: X-Files Episode Fanfic Exchange (2020)





	A Leap of Faith

**Author's Note:**

  * For [joanidiego51](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joanidiego51/gifts).



> _For the 2020 X Files Episode Exchange, I received the following prompt from Joani: “At the church, Scully whispers to Mulder, lovingly recommitting to him. What does she say that assures him of her love and desire to resume their relationship? When they return to their house, they are very emotional and connect physically. They have some kind of talk about what changes they'll make going forward.”_
> 
> Partially inspired by this fanvid on YouTube, [True Faith](https://youtu.be/3nOZq4bRZiA).
> 
> Thank you so much to @ceruleanmilieu for the beta.

The concrete beneath her feet gleamed with a kaleidoscope of color, light spilling through the stained-glass windows behind her. The colors swam before her eyes, blurred by a sheen of tears, emotions threatening to pour out of her like the light through the church windows. This case had tested her in so many ways. It had brought her back to the church and forced her to face her own mortality. For several horrifying seconds, she’d questioned _everything_ as she plunged down that garbage chute, not knowing if she’d just taken her last breath.

“You okay, Scully?” Mulder’s hand pressed against her aching lower back.

She nodded. “Yeah.”

She turned her head to smile at him, touched by the genuine concern on his face. A shaft of pink light splashed across his cheek and sparkled in his eyes. The church behind her had provided the foundation of her faith, but the man beside her represented her leap of faith, a leap she was ready to take…together.

_I love you. I always have, and I always will._

Her cheeks warmed as she remembered her whispered confession. Most people would consider it ridiculous for her to whisper such a thing, but she and Mulder weren’t most people. They’d never voiced their emotions, often relying on the unspoken connection between them. After they drifted apart, she’d wondered if a lack of communication had played a part. Maybe, if they wanted to move forward together, they needed to say the things that needed to be said.

She started down the steps to the street where their car was parked, wincing as the muscles in her back cramped and spasmed. She was too old to get thrown down garbage chutes, or at least too old to walk away without her fair share of aches and pains.

“I really wish you’d let me take you to the hospital to be checked out,” Mulder said, walking beside her.

“I’m a doctor, Mulder. There’s nothing wrong with me but a few bumps and bruises.”

“At least come home with me tonight. Let me give you a back rub.”

She gave him a tired smile. “Okay.”

“Hey.” He stopped as they reached the sidewalk, turning to face her. “I love you too. You know that, right? I never stopped.”

She nodded, allowing him to pull her close. His arms encircled her, warm and strong, and she burrowed her face against the solid expanse of his chest, inhaling his familiar scent, a lifetime of memories unspooling in her mind like one of those slideshows he used to make for her in their basement office. One of his hands rubbed up and down her back, and she released a contented sigh.

After a minute, she pulled free, and they walked to the car together to begin the hourlong drive to Farr’s Corner. There was a time when she used to dread this drive. For years, she’d avoided it entirely. But for the past few months, she’d been spending more and more time at the house they’d bought together so long ago, when they’d finally given up their life on the run. Lately, it was starting to feel like home again.

“Scary, the things people will do to avoid getting old,” Mulder commented as he drove, his mind still on the case they’d just closed, organ smoothies and bodies stitched together, a real-life horror show performed in the name of eternal youth.

Even in the face of her own mortality, the thought held no appeal. After defying death so many times, the idea of growing old seemed almost a privilege. She’d earned every wrinkle and every gray hair—although she wasn’t planning to give up her red hair dye any time soon. And while she’d given Mulder a hard time about not noticing her haircut, deep down she loved that he was so unconcerned with her appearance.

Apparently, her tumble down the garbage chute had taken more out of her than she realized, because the next thing she knew, she opened her eyes to find Mulder pulling down the long driveway to their house. The familiar bumps and ruts in the earth had woken her, and tonight she had to hold in a groan as the uneven driveway rattled her aching bones.

“How do you feel about a bubble bath?” Mulder asked as he pulled the SUV to a stop in front of the house.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. “A bubble bath?”

“Okay, you got me. I definitely don’t have anything to make bubbles, but I do have Epsom salts. They’re good for muscle aches if you put them in a hot bath.”

“Yes, they are,” she confirmed. “But how did you know that?”

“Scully, I’m fifty-seven years old. Believe me, I’ve had my share of sore muscles.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “A bath with Epsom salts sounds wonderful, but don’t you dare make another joke about how I smell.”

He reached over to rest a big, warm hand on her thigh. “You smell just fine since that shower you took earlier.”

She ought to be offended by him poking fun at the way she’d smelled when she was covered in garbage, but instead she found herself laughing as they got out of the car. They walked up the front steps together, and as she went into the kitchen for a glass of water and some ibuprofen, he went down the hall. A moment later, she heard water running in the tub.

And she felt an ache in the vicinity of her heart that had nothing to do with her fall. Mulder had changed in the last year or so, like he’d finally started to take their relationship seriously. Maybe they both had. She’d been peripherally aware of it for a while now, but when he stayed with her at the church that morning while she lit prayer candles, it was like she’d just put on her glasses and truly seen this new version of him.

She’d told him he didn’t need to wait for her, and she’d meant it. She’d given him an out, but he hadn’t taken it. He’d stayed, not because of the case or to seek any sort of truth. He’d just wanted to be with her, and that told her everything she needed to know.

She walked down the hall to find him sitting on the side of the bathtub, one hand under the faucet as he tested the water temperature. An open bag of Epsom salt sat on the floor between his feet.

He looked up at her with an easy smile. “Ready?”

She nodded, reaching up to tug her hoodie over her head. Another spasm of pain slid down her spine, and she froze with a gasp.

“Let me,” Mulder said, standing. Carefully, methodically, he undressed her. His fingers catalogued each bruise on her skin with a gentle touch, lingering here and there as he noted her injuries with a grunt of concern.

She shivered at the contact, instinctively stepping closer to him, her body seeking his the way it always had. “You joining me?”

He chuckled. “Not that I don’t want to, but there isn’t room for both of us in that tub. You enjoy your bath, Scully.”

With a smile, she took his extended hand and stepped into the water. It was hot but not too hot, and as she sank into it, she sighed with relief, because God, that really did feel good. And while she would have loved to have his big strong body wrapped around hers, he was right. There was no way the two of them would fit in this tub. This was an old house, after all, with a standard sized tub, not the garden tub with jets she had at her condo.

Those jets would have felt amazing on her sore muscles, but tonight, there was nowhere she’d rather be than here in this little tub, knees drawn up so she could sink deeper into the water. She slid down until it lapped at her bottom lip, buoying her battered body, soothing her aches while Mulder soothed her soul. He sat on the closed toilet, still fully dressed, musing about the case.

“Not even the promise of eternal youth would convince me to eat human organs,” he said.

“I’m surprised, given your propensity for tasting evidence,” she teased.

“Even I have my limits.”

When she started to sweat, he helped her stand and wrapped her in a towel. Then he led her to the bedroom, where he instructed her to lay face down on the quilt so he could deliver on the back rub he’d promised. She complied, closing her eyes, unaccustomed to this level of care from him. Another way he’d changed.

The blanket was soft against her cheek, worn from years of washing. It smelled like him. His scent had always soothed her. Briefly, she remembered the way she used to lay in his bed while he was missing, holding one of his shirts and drowning in grief. A lifetime ago.

She heard a squirt of lotion and the slippery sound of his palms rubbing together, and then his hands rested on her shoulders. He began to move them in big sweeping strokes, smoothing out all her kinks. His thumbs pressed into a knot between her shoulders, and she moaned.

“Am I hurting you?” he asked, his voice low and gruff.

“No. Feels so good,” she mumbled.

His jean-clad legs brushed over the backs of her thighs as he moved, creating a delicious friction on her bare skin. She closed her eyes, melting into the quilt as he worked his magic on her sore back. His hands were so big, so strong, and he was definitely putting them to good use right now. As his hands reached her lumbar area, he dipped his head, kissing her neck, and she let out another moan.

There was a new kind of ache inside her now, the kind he knew how to satisfy in truly spectacular ways. It grew stronger with each stroke of his hands over her skin. He kissed the back of her neck, and she pushed her ass upward, encountering the hard bulge in the front of his jeans. At the contact, he rocked his hips forward, pressing his cock more firmly against her.

“You’re wearing too many clothes,” she whispered, rolling to face him.

“How’s your back?” he asked.

“Fine as long as I lay flat.” She reached up with one hand to grip him through his jeans, and he sucked in a breath. “Plus, orgasms release endorphins and serotonin into the bloodstream, which are both good for pain relief.”

“When you put it that way…” He crawled backward off the bed, stripping out of his shirt, jeans, and boxers in record time. His cock jutted in front of him, and God he was spectacular. As he lowered himself on top of her, there was something unexpectedly tender in his expression. He cupped her jaw in his hand, brushing a thumb over her cheek. “You scared me today, Scully. Thought I’d lost you for a minute.”

“Can’t get rid of me that easily,” she deflected, but she’d thought the same, and it had shaken her.

“We need to be more careful,” he said. “Not as young as we used to be.”

“Mm,” she agreed, gasping as he rocked his hips against her. “Still good at this, though.”

“Hell yeah, we are.” His voice was a growl as he brought his free hand from her face down her body to press between her thighs, stroking her. He dipped lightly inside her, coating his fingers in her wetness before moving to tease her clit.

“I need you inside me,” she whispered, hands gripping his ass, drawing him closer.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” He gripped himself, aligning the head of his cock with her entrance as he brought their mouths together for a sloppy kiss. His tongue slipped into her mouth as his cock pushed inside her, thick and hard, and she gasped into his mouth.

They moved together in an easy rhythm, kissing and touching as he thrust inside her. He braced himself over her on one forearm while his free hand roamed her body, stroking her stomach and that sensitive spot on her hip before returning to her clit, intimately familiar with all her pleasure points.

Her eyes fluttered shut as she started to come. Release rushed through her, and she cried out at the unexpected force of it, grabbing desperately at Mulder as she came apart beneath him. He groaned, pumping harder and faster, and then he was coming too, filling her with a surge of heat as he found his release.

Afterward, they lay together while they caught their breath, and then he slid out of bed, returning with a warm, damp cloth to clean her up. He was always attentive during sex, but he was being extra careful with her tonight, and she could feel herself unraveling, the last barriers she’d erected around her heart falling away beneath his gentle touch.

“Be right back,” he told her, leaning in for a kiss before he headed into the bathroom. The toilet flushed, and then he turned on the shower. Familiar sounds. It had been so long since she’d lived with him, or anyone at all. She’d missed the intimacy of sharing these ordinary moments with someone, especially Mulder.

She lay in bed, listening to the steady hum of cicadas and rhythmic chirp of the crickets outside. The room smelled like cedar and linen. There was a time when this house had suffocated her, when both she and Mulder had become lost out here in the middle of nowhere. When she left, she’d bought the most modern condo she could find, with every technological bell and whistle, as different from this unremarkable house in the country as possible.

But it had never felt like home.

Tears welled in her eyes as she snuggled deeper into his sheets. _Their_ sheets, because as she stroked her fingers over the soft cotton, she remembered picking out this set right after they’d bought the house. Of course, he still had them.

The shower stopped, and a minute later, he slid into bed beside her, wearing only low-slung pajama pants. “Need anything, Scully?”

She shook her head, rolling so that she was spooned against him. He fitted an arm over her stomach the way he’d always done, and for a while, they just breathed into the darkness, sated and content.

“Mulder,” she whispered.

His fingers feathered over her bare skin. “Yeah?”

“I think it’s time for me to sell my condo.”

His hand stilled. “Really?”

She nodded. “I’m ready to move back home, here, with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> _I had a different take on what she whispered in the church in my Halloween fic,[Quarter Moon](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21088484/chapters/50173967). I hope one (or both) rings true for you! xx._


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